Tree · Ebenaceae
Persimmon
Diospyros kaki
Give this tree plenty of sun and a bit of time, and it'll deck its bare autumn branches with bright fruit long past leaf fall.
Full sun
Every 7–14 days
USDA 7–10
20–30 ft · 6.1–9.1 m
Overview
The persimmon is a slow, easygoing fruit tree, and it pays you back twice a year. It's green all summer, then it goes fiery in autumn and keeps its glowing orange fruit on bare branches deep into winter. It's part of the ebony family and gets pretty big, a good 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) when it's grown, so it wants real room, not some tight corner.
Most folks growing one at home go for the Asian persimmon, and it comes in two flavors, so to speak. Astringent types like Hachiya stay harshly tannic until they ripen to jelly soft, while non astringent types like Fuyu turn sweet and crisp and eat just fine while firm. So which kind do you have? That's what tells you when to pick.
Once it's settled in, the tree is fairly drought tolerant and barely asks for feeding or pruning. The patience part is all up front. A young tree takes its sweet time getting established and coming into bearing, but stick with it and it'll hand you decades of fruit.
Care
The short version: give it full sun and deep, well drained soil, keep the water coming while the tree's young and setting fruit, feed it lightly if at all, prune only to tidy up the framework, and let astringent fruit ripen all the way before you pick.
Light
Persimmon wants full sun, ideally most of the day. The more direct light it soaks up, the better the fruit colors and sweetens, and the tighter and stronger the tree grows.
Water
Water it regularly while it's getting established and right through fruit development, and let the top half of the soil dry out between drinks. Once it's settled, the tree is fairly drought tolerant and handles dry spells fine, but it never wants to be sitting in waterlogged ground.
Soil
Go with deep, moist, well drained loam. Persimmon isn't picky about texture and takes clay, loam, or sand, but it's happiest at a slightly acidic pH of 6.0 to 6.5.
Temperature
Asian persimmon puts up with a wide range, roughly 10°F to 95°F (-12°C to 35°C), which lines up with hardiness zones 7 to 10. It does need a real winter chill to fruit well, but watch out, a hard late frost can still nip the spring blooms.
Humidity
Regular outdoor air is all it needs, somewhere around 40% to 70% humidity, so there's nothing to fiddle with. What matters more is good airflow through the canopy, since that keeps leaf spot from getting started.
Feeding
Keep feeding light. A balanced fertilizer in early spring is only worth it if growth looks weak, because too much nitrogen drives fruit drop instead of giving you a bigger crop.
Pruning
Pruning's minimal here. Cut out dead, hurt, or crossing branches in late winter, guide a young tree toward a strong frame, and pull off root suckers the second you see them.
Repotting
Persimmon's an orchard tree, not a pot plant, so it's rarely repotted. Plant it once in its permanent spot with room to spread, then leave the roots alone.
Size & spacing
Give it space, seriously. A grown tree hits 20 to 30 feet (6 to 9 m) tall and spreads 15 to 25 feet (4.5 to 7.5 m) wide, so put it well clear of buildings, power lines, and other trees.
When to plant
Persimmon runs on its own slow seasonal clock, so don't rush it. Plant young trees in early spring once the hard frosts are done, then just wait for the blooms in mid to late spring and fruit that colors up in fall and hangs on into early winter.
Northern hemisphere
Southern hemisphere
Typical months for a temperate climate: start earlier in warm zones, later where spring frosts linger.
- Plant: Early spring after the last hard frost, as bare root or container trees.
- Harvest: Blooms mid to late spring; fruit ripens in fall and early winter.
Hardiness
USDA hardiness zones: 7–10
Temperature: down to -18°C
Troubleshooting
Good news: persimmon is a healthy tree that hardly gives you any real trouble. Most of what you'll notice is cosmetic or just a fruit quirk, not anything scary. Find your symptom below and the fix is usually pretty light.
Baby fruit going yellow and dropping way before it ripens
A bit of fruit drop is totally normal for persimmon, but a thirsty tree or one hauling too big a crop will let go of way more. So keep the soil evenly moist the whole way through fruit development. And if the branches are packed, thin them early so the tree can actually hold onto what's left.
Fix:
- Keep soil evenly moist during fruit development and thin heavy crops.
Tiny bumps or fuzzy white patches on the twigs, maybe with a coat of black sooty mold
Those little bumps and cottony puffs? They're sap feeding insects like scale or mealybugs, and that black film underneath is sooty mold growing on the sticky honeydew they leave. A light case won't actually hurt the tree, so there's no need to fuss. If it gets bad, spray some horticultural oil and let the tree's natural predators mop up the rest.
Fix:
- Usually minor; treat heavy infestations with horticultural oil and encourage natural predators.
Dark spots with sharp angles popping up on the foliage
Seeing dark, angular spots on the leaves? That's just fungal leaf spot, and it's a cosmetic thing that hardly ever slows a persimmon down. Rake up the fallen leaves and toss them so the spores can't hang around over winter, and thin the canopy a bit for better airflow. You'll almost never need to spray anything.
Fix:
- Rake and remove fallen leaves and provide good air circulation; rarely needs treatment.
That mouth drying pucker when a firm persimmon gets bitten too early
That dry, puckery grip comes from soluble tannins in unripe astringent cultivars like Hachiya, and it's got nothing to do with how you grew the tree. Just let astringent types soften all the way to jelly ripe before you bite in. Non astringent ones like Fuyu skip all that and stay sweet even while they're firm.
Fix:
- Let astringent types soften fully before eating; non astringent types such as Fuyu can be eaten firm.
Toxicity
The ripe flesh is a safe, sweet treat for people, and the tree itself doesn't carry any chemical poison. The catch is a mechanical one: those hard seeds and big amounts of fruit can clump into indigestible masses, which is a real risk for horses and livestock grazing windfalls, and for dogs that gorge on dropped fruit. So pick up the fallen persimmons and fence stock away from the tree during fruiting season.
Toxic to
Cats · Dogs · Horses · Rabbits · Livestock · Birds
Safe for
People
Cats Mild
There's no chemical toxin in the flesh, so a curious nibble is nothing to worry about. The risk is a mechanical one, since a swallowed seed or a belly full of fruit can leave a cat with mild stomach upset.
Dogs Mild
A dog that gets into fallen fruit might come away with vomiting or loose stool, thanks to the seeds and how much they ate. And every so often a small dog that gulps down several whole fruit, seeds and all, can pack them into a blockage.
Horses Moderate
Horses are the ones you really have to watch. Munching dropped persimmons all through fall and winter can bind the seeds and pulp into a gastric phytobezoar, and that's what leads to colic, impaction, lethargy, and weight loss.
Rabbits Mild
A little ripe flesh here and there won't poison a rabbit, but the seeds and all that sugar just don't sit right with their gut. So keep persimmon to a rare treat, and skip it completely for young rabbits.
Livestock Mild
Cattle, sheep, and goats can nibble fallen fruit without any chemical harm, but if they keep gorging on seedy persimmons they risk the same impactions horses get. Fence them off the windfalls once fruiting season rolls around.
Birds Mild
Wild birds love ripe persimmon and do great on it, since they eat the soft flesh and pass the small seeds no problem. For pet birds though, stick to seedless bites of ripe fruit and never the hard pits.
People Ripe fruit safe
Ripe persimmon is a delicious, safe fruit whether you eat it fresh or dried. Just wait for astringent types to soften, don't swallow the seeds, and don't go overboard, since eating a whole pile on an empty stomach has been linked to bezoars.
Foliage and ripe flesh are not chemically toxic; the hazard comes from swallowed seeds and large amounts of fruit, especially unripe astringent fruit.
Helpline numbers
United States
ASPCA Animal Poison Control: (888) 426-4435 (fee applies)
Poison Control: (800) 222-1222
Canada
Poison Centres: 1-844-764-7669
Varieties
Persimmons split first into astringent and non astringent camps, and that one trait is what decides how you eat them. Here are the names you'll bump into most.
Fuyu
This non astringent Asian type has sweet, crisp flesh you can eat while the fruit's still firm, so there's no waiting around.
Hachiya
This astringent Asian type needs to ripen all the way to soft and jelly textured before it drops its pucker.
Jiro
A non astringent Asian type that's a lot like Fuyu, and you can eat it firm and sweet right off the tree.
American (Diospyros virginiana)
The native American persimmon handles cold down to about minus 20°F to minus 25°F (-29°C to -32°C), and it's often dioecious, so you'll usually need both a male and a female tree for fruit.
How to propagate
You propagate persimmon to keep a fruit you already like, not because it's easy. Grafting keeps the cultivar true, while seed is a slower, more unpredictable route that's mostly used to raise rootstock.
GraftingDemanding
Named cultivars almost always start with grafting or budding onto seedling rootstock, and that's how a grower hangs onto the exact fruit of a Fuyu or Hachiya. It does take a steady hand and good timing though, so it sits at the demanding end of things.
SeedModerate
Persimmon sprouts pretty easily from seed, but here's the catch: the seedlings come up variable and slow to bear, so you rarely know what fruit you'll end up with. That's why seed grown trees mostly get raised as rootstock for grafting instead of for their own crop.
Myths
Every single persimmon will pucker your mouth.
Nope, only the astringent cultivars like Hachiya need to soften before they turn sweet. Non astringent types such as Fuyu and Jiro are crisp and sweet eaten firm, without any of that dry, puckering bite.